10 ways to improve your small business website

How well is your website performing? Many small business owners do well with their website through word of mouth and referrals, however, as we all know, Google can be picky about what it displays in its search results, and that’s key to helping new customers discover your business. Below are 10 quick tips of how you can improve your website for both search and your potential customers.

Make sure every webpage on your site has a unique page title that contains the keywords that you would expect someone to use when searching for the page or product. If you need some ideas about which words people might use to search for your business, use Google’s Keyword tool to give you suggestions.

If you have an About Us page – make sure that the page title includes your company name e.g. About Small Business BC.

Include your company’s full business name and address on every page in the footer of the website to increase your chance of being included in local search engine results and on Google Maps.

Make sure you have installed Google Analytics and use it. Track a couple of key metrics about your website each month, such as how many people from your local area have visited and how many visits did the website receive from search engines?

If you want to be found locally for a specific service, make sure you put your location in the page title of the very front page of your website. For example rather than “Acme Plumbers inc” consider “Vancouver Plumber: Acme Plumbers Inc” as potential clients will be searching for Vancouver Plumber, not your company name.

Start a company blog and talk about not just company news, but also industry trends, case studies and even promote other local non-competing companies; they might return the favour!

Include your company phone number in a prominent position at the top right of every page. This not only instills confidence that you are a real company and you are local, but it also saves people from having to search your site for ways to get in touch.

Contact your five best customers and ask them if they would write you a testimonial for your website.

If you sell products online, take time to write your own review of the product rather than cutting and pasting a manufacturer description.

Consider using videos to review products or explain about your services – a video can provide a level of understanding quickly and help to convert visitors into customers.